March 27, 1878. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



2C5 



erect-growing plant, with stout leafy pseudobulbs, bearing to- 

 wards the upper part two and throe-flowered peduncles of a 

 lovely description. The blooms are thick and fleshy, measur- 

 ing upwards of 2 inches in diameter, the sepals and petals 



differing from the typical form in several particulars, and 

 especially in the absence of the blood-coloured spot on the lip, 

 is figured on the preceding page), varying more or less in colour 

 and markings, but all are beautiful, and deserving the ama- 



white, rose, and purple, whilst the lip is purplish red. There I teur's attention. It is widely distributed in northern India. — 

 are several varieties of this plant in cultivation (one of which, ' Expeeto Obedb. 



VIOLET VICTORIA EEGINA. 



We were about publishing this uuexaggerated portrait of 

 some of the Victoria Regina Violets exhibited by Mr. Lee, of 

 Clevedon, at the Royal Horticultural Society's Meeting on the 



I'Jth iust., when we happened to meet with these brief notes 

 upon the flower. 



Violets I deep blue Violets 1 

 .Xpiil's loveliest coronets 



Victoria Regina Violet. 



are emblems of modesty, and wittily as well as wisely did that i 

 lady who chose the Violet for her crest, with the motto // faut ' 

 nif eliprcher — T must be searched after. The ancients did not 

 fail to note the habit of the flower, wliose perfume led to its 

 detection beneath the leaves, so tliey named it Ion, and said 

 that it was the nymph la who shrank from the kisses of Apollo 

 (the sun), and was for safety changed to a Violet. Violets 

 were sold largely in the Atheni.an floral market, and the Ro- 

 man cavousers wore chaplets of them to dispel the couseriuenees . 

 of their excesses. Double varieties of both the white and ! 

 purple are mentioned by some of our earliest herbalists. Many 

 florists have succeeded in increasing the size of the flowers, 

 but none have been more successful than Mr. Lee. Many i 



have succeeded in increasing the size of the flowers, but no 

 one has intensified the sweetness of the common wild Violet. 

 No better evidence of the power of its perfume can be given 

 than that of the huntsman, who when asked what had thrown 

 the hounds off (he .scent, replied, " That bank of stinking 

 wiletfl.'' 



lu VicTORi.v Recina Violet, the variety which wo now figure, 

 we have a Violet not merely remarkable for the great size of 

 its flowers, but very sweet-scented as well, a quality not always 

 possessed in a high degree by large- flowering varieties of this 

 plant. Large flowers are but too often wanting in scent, large 

 fniit in flavour, and it would seem that Nature in developing 

 one quality to aa unusual extent had to do so at the expense 



